Manufacturing processes of most products generally include the portioning of a raw or intermediary material into a desired shape or weight. In the food industry in particular, portioning systems are routinely used to trim foodstuffs into uniform sizes—for example, for steaks to be served at restaurants, chicken fillets in frozen dinners, or in chicken burgers. Also, excess fat, bone, and other foreign or undesired materials are routinely trimmed from foodstuffs. Much of the portioning/trimming of materials, in particular food products, is now carried out with the use of high-speed portioning machines utilizing high-speed fluid jets to portion objects conveyed upon a conveyor belt assembly.
High-speed fluid jets impinge the product with a thin, high-velocity stream of water or other fluid. Pressurized fluid is ejected from a small orifice to create the high-speed stream or jet, as is well known in the art. When the fluid jet impinges on the target product, a thin slice of material is removed, preferably without any appreciable amount of cutting fluid being absorbed into the product.
The portioning machines use various scanning techniques to ascertain the size and shape of the food product as it is advanced on a conveying surface. This information is analyzed with the aid of a computer, which in turn directs a mobile high-speed fluid jet to portion the food product advanced on the conveying surface into the desired shape or weight.
A conveyor belt assembly used with such a portioning machine must not restrict the rapid removal of the cutting fluid from the conveying surface. One method of accomplishing this is to provide a conveyor belt assembly having a conveying surface formed from a lattice network of support members. The voids between the support members of the lattice network allow spent cutting fluid to drain from the conveying surface, or to pass through the conveying surface, and into a spent cutting-fluid receiver.
Although existing conveyor belt assemblies of a lattice type design are capable of conveying products for use in portioning machines utilizing fluid jets, they are not without problems. First, the conveyor belt assemblies have impediments to rapid water removal—such as valleys, horizontal surface areas, or other configurations that impede rapid cutting-fluid removal. Therefore, cutting fluid can accumulate on the conveyor surface, thereby increasing the potential that the position of the product on the conveying surface will be disrupted by floating the product or its position disrupted by direct impact of ricocheted (splashed back) cutting fluid from the fluid jet.
Further, these impediments to rapid cutting-fluid removal also subject the object to be portioned to increased fluid absorption, and also increase the amount of splash of the cutting fluid upon impingement of the conveyor belt assembly. Increased splash causes a corresponding increase in fluid released to the work environment, and also increases the absorption of the cutting fluid into the object to be portioned. The impact of the splash can also cause shifting of the belt and the objects to be portioned, resulting in less precise cutting or portioning than desired. Further yet, these impediments subject the conveying surface to increased rates of wear, since the fluid jet more directly impinges upon their surfaces.
Further, existing conveying systems lack a top surface that provides a sufficient gripping surface to hold and maintain the position of objects to be portioned. Still further yet, the impediments cause the fluid jet to be disrupted as it attempts to pass through the conveyor surface. This disruption of the fluid jet disrupts the collection of the spent cutting fluid as the fluid jet is dispersed in a wide range of directions, impeding its flow directly into the spent cutting-fluid collection means.
Further still, existing lattice type conveyor belts are prone to having varying distances between adjacent lattices as measured along the length of the belt. During typical portioning operations, the object to be portioned is scanned at a first location and the position of the object recorded relative to the conveyor belt. Further downstream, the object is portioned. The accuracy of the portioning operation depends on keeping track of the product position form the time it is scanned to the time it is portioned. Therefore, a belt that has inconsistencies in distances between adjacent lattices can decrease the accuracy of the portioning.
Thus, there exists a need for a conveyor belt assembly that is substantially resistant to wear, minimizes absorption of the fluid jet into the product to be portioned, reduces the splash of the fluid jet upon impingement with the conveying surface, minimizes the splash back of the fluid jet from the conveyor belt during portioning to reduce the movement of the object being portioned, provides a conveyor surface exhibiting increased gripping capabilities, provides minimal disruption of the fluid jet upon impact with the conveying surface, and maintains consistent distances between adjacent lattices.